August is either a blessed or cursed time in Paris, depending on your needs. For my wife Colette, it’s when we can park anywhere, in the most crowded part of town—an event to be celebrated. For me, it means trying to find places that are open to eat at, which can be dicey.

It's Spring in summer as Daniel Rose launches his state-of-the-art bouillon for the 21st century. At Les Etangs de Corot Alice Tourbier unveils the Paul&Joe Junior suite, a funky designer space. Plus details of how you can win a belle maison one hour from Paris.

With a talented woman chef and superb products Cafe Prunier is a perfect summer address. If you like cheese you'll love Reblochon which adapts to so many different recipes. Where's the beef? Meet Yves-Marie Le Bourdennac, the world's hippest butcher, who ages his beef with the finest whiskey and says the most beautiful blondes come from Aquitaine.

Three recent meals (at Ze Kitchen Galerie, Asafumi and Naomi Yamashita’s Le Kolo and the Concert de Cuisine) and a recent discussion at one of my new cyber-homes, Chowhound, have led me to reexamine the question of what to call food that’s neither purely French nor purely Japanese.

When my youngest daughter was about 12, I remember that her best friend's brother spent his summer at a place they called a “kill your own food camp.”  Now that’s a bit extreme, but the distance between where food comes from and what you taste on your plate can be measured in more than miles, carbon emissions or psychological space; it also involves a connection between the earth and your amygdala. She wasn't privy to seeing a potager, much less selecting her vegetables from it.

There's brunch and brunch, at 114 faubourg they've got the formula just right. So has Barbara Rihl, but she's not serving brunch, she's designing the drop dead gorgeous travel bags which are walking out of her new Paris boutique. It's all good this week as Karil Lopez (ex-Bristol with Eric Frechon) and Damien Crépu re-open Cristal de Sel after a fire.

Each week, the gang at Figaroscope (Colette Monsat et al) come up with what used to be called a “Dossier” about restaurants in Paris that have summer terraces or have club sandwiches or some other unifying theme.  And often, after listing the ones that are the top choices, they have a category of “Et aussi” (“And also”) or “Sans oublier” (Don’t forget”).

When Edouard Desrousseaux de Vandiéres was small he created imaginary restaurants, “cooking” for family and friends. Believing if you can dream it you can do it, he now has a real restaurant. Tico's owner dedicates his restaurant to the memory of his son Roberto (Tico), killed in a tragic accident. Musée Rodin is a must-visit not only for the “Corps et Décors” expo (through 22 August) but also for the sumptuous gardens and delightful Café Rodin.

Jean Cocteau, poet, painter, filmmaker and actor, was sick of fans knocking on the door of his Paris home at 36 rue Montpensier, Palais Royal, to ask a question or get an autograph. Irritated when fans waited outside, he couldn't even pop across the road to Le Grand Vefour to dine with the likes of Colette in peace. So, in 1947 he bought a house, with his friend Jean Marais, at Milly-la-Foret, to the southeast of Paris, near Fontainebleau. "It is the house that was waiting for me far from the bells of the Palais Royal", he wrote.